Asteroid Blues

Commander Smoke disembarked from his transport to find Hippolyta waiting with a look of impatience on her face.

“I must say I am not accustomed to being made to wait commander. Surely you have a good excuse?”

“Out of donuts in the break room.” Smoke responded, before taking another bite from the chocolate glazed pastry he was holding. “Then Jean-Jacques wanted a latte… it was a whole thing.” He gestured in winding motions to the Merovignian man currently disembarking the transport, with a heavily laden sack hanging from his shoulder.

“This is an important inspection.” Hippolyta cautioned, eyeing the last three members of Smoke’s retinue to disembark, a rookie Kappa, Svetlana Volkova and her siriusbot. “Are you certain you wish to proceed with such a reduced escort?”

“It’s taken care of” Smoke responded between chews of donut. “You four are the only O-12 presence we’ll be needing, at least officially. We wouldn’t want to go and make the Ariadnans jumpy now would we?”

Hippolyta opened her mouth to reply, but was cut short, as the hoarse sound of a Morat battlecry filled the air.

“They are here sooner than we anticipated, non?” Jean-Jacques the Gangbuster asked, adjusting his mirrored sunglases, and picking two small goat-like MadTraps from his sack before tying it firmly about his shoulder.

“We’ll have to make due” Smoke replied. He made his way back into the transport muttering something into what looked like an old-fashioned handheld radio. He patted the Kappa on the shoulder and said “Time to shine kid”

The Kappa’s eyes went huge as plates. “M-ME?”

Hippolyta could do nothing but stare as Smoke took off in his transport, and the surprises did not stop there. Four heavily armed Caledonians clearly laden with illegal weapons arrived just as the commander left, exchanging greetings with the others and taking positions alongside her. She was not sure how she had landed here or what the day would bring, but she knew as soon as she made her way back she would file one extensive complaint.

MORATS TURN 1

Four Daturazi witch soldiers made their way forward, throwing smoke to cover their comrades’ advance and then promptly forming up into a linked unit. A Haris link of Rodoks then made their way down from the tower they had occupied to hack the objective room’s door and subsequently enter it. Their leader inadvertently set off a madtrap (represented by the golden coins) but managed to dodge it. The Rodok team then set up a mine in front of the door closest to the O-12 deployment zone. The Morat turn ended with 2 of the witch soldiers making their way into the room and 2 Ikadrons moving forward from their deployment area.

O-12 TURN 1

Hippolyta and the Varangian guard made their way forward and covered the side with eclipse smoke. They took positions on both sides of the door which the Amazon breached with her close combat weapon while on her way. Faced with theprospect of the mine, one Varangian saw it fit to rush into the room and lay down chainrifle fire, clearing the explosive and rendering one of the Rodoks unconscious but paying for it with his own life. A Daturazi took the opportunity to lob a grenade at the rushing Caledonian which heavily injured another and Hippolyta. The injured man, seeing his life extinguish, decided to go in a blaze of glory, charging up the side of the building and ending the lives of a Daturazi and an Ikadron with his shotgun before dying while discharging his chainrifle into the room through the same door the Morats had used to enter and taking another Rodok and an Ikadron. The turn ended with the Gangbuster sending madtraps to take new positions and deploying.

MORATS TURN 2

The remainig witch soldiers formed up and moved forwar, easily avoiding one of the remaining madtraps, only for a second to immobilize one of them. They continued to lob grenades out of the door, but through a combination of dodging and passed armor rolls, Hyppolita and the two remaining Varangians managed to survive. The amazon managed to dodge into close combat with one of the Daturazi, but was felled by the mighty alien. One of the Varangians dodged into the room, and after dodging again when faced with the remaining Ikadron’s flamethrowers decided to let his chainrifle answer the last Rodok’s shotguns, ending him, the Ikadron, and himself in the process.

O-12 TURN 2

The last remaining Varangian impetuously charged the Daturazi that had ended Hyppolita and with a berserk swing took his life just as the mighty alien warrior ended his own. The Sirius team then moved forward under cover and took down the last of the non-glued aliens with her red fury despite his attempts to cover himself with smoke. The Gangbuster finally made his way into the room and placed the glued Daturazi under arrest, ensuring victory.